Changing academic work places: the introduction of open-plan offices in universities

Facilitating hotdesking in a hybrid campus environment: lessons from the hotdesking experiences of doctoral students in a US public university

Purpose

University faculty, researchers and graduate students are increasingly working out of hotdesks, nonterritorial workspaces available on a “first come first served” basis and cleared of all work and personal possessions at the end of every work session. The aim of this study of the hotdesking experiences of doctoral students in a US public university facility is to identify the themes and coping behaviors associated with hotdesking and examine their implications for campus workspace design and policymaking.

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses multiple methods – direct and participant observation of flex workspaces in the study site, semi-structured interviews of doctoral students hotdesking in the study site and archival research of public institutional data.

Findings

Study participants work early or late to secure suitable hotdesks, perform important tasks in locations other than the study site, incur co-working space and home office costs, etc. to cope with the themes of uncertainty, lack of control and lack of workspace continuity associated with hotdesking. Workspace reservation systems, storage lockers and workspaces for diverse tasks can improve the on-campus hotdesking experience. Off-campus support such as financial support for setting up and maintaining a home office, subscription to co-working spaces, etc. can facilitate productivity and foster a sense of connection in hotdesk users.

Originality/value

This study contributes evidence that hotdesking doctoral students operate in a hybrid work environment composed of on- and off-campus locations. This study provides original insight that hotdesk users need on- and off-campus workspace support to experience productivity, connection and well-being in a hybrid campus work environment.

How teachers’ expectations influence their experiences with activity-based workplaces in higher education

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the influence of teachers’ expectations on their experiences and satisfaction response dregarding the introduction of activity-based workplaces (ABWs) in a Dutch university of applied sciences.

Design/methodology/approach

The first author executed a three-year at-home ethnographic study as senior lecturer at the university in which the research was executed.

Findings

Teachers have will expectations, should expectations and want expectations that relate to the stages before, during and after the introduction of ABWs. Unmet should and will expectations negatively affect want expectations and not only influence teachers’ affective commitment to their work but also generate dissatisfaction and even anger toward the organization, showing the importance of monitoring all three types of expectations.

Research implications

Users evaluate their expectations against their experiences which can lead to the formation of (dis)satisfaction regarding the introduction of ABWs. To explain the satisfaction response, research should consider expectations and experiences.

Practical implications

Discrepancies between users’ expectations and experiences lead to dissatisfaction with ABWs. Involving users and aiming to capture their expectations in the design support professionals predicting satisfaction and preventing the organization from costly re-refurbishments.

Social implications

Exploring users' expectations creates an understanding of users' everyday processes and underlying values which can improve the fit between users and building and reduce costs. Reducing accommodation costs benefits society, as more money can be spent on education.

Originality/value

This paper integrates Lefebvre’s spatial theory and Oliver’s disconfirmation theory to study the influence of expectations on users’ experiences and describes the process before, during and after introducing ABWs.

Association of Primary and Behavioral Health Integrated Care Upon Pediatric Mental Disorder Treatment

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this study was to examine whether linkage with mental health (MH) treatment differed across 3 different integrated care arrangements (ICAs), following incident attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) diagnoses given by primary care providers (PCPs) in the pediatric setting.

METHODS

Using claims linking with multiple public data sources, we examined the treatment initiation among children receiving an incident diagnosis of ADHD or MDD from PCPs working in practices with various ICAs. ICAs were categorized as PCP practiced alone (non-co-located), PCP practiced with specialist outside the practice but co-located at the practice site (co-located), and employed specialists who were co-located (co-located and co-affiliated).

RESULTS

A total of 4203 incident ADHD and 298 incident MDD cases diagnosed by PCPs were identified, of which 3123 (74%) with ADHD and 200 (67%) with MDD received treatment within 90 days since the diagnosis. Children diagnosed with ADHD by co-located and co-affiliated PCPs were twice as likely to receive treatment as those diagnosed by non-co-located PCPs (odds ratio [OR] = 1.93; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.24-2.78). Of those treated, children diagnosed by co-located and co-affiliated PCPs were 2 times more likely to receive guideline recommended psychotherapy (OR = 2.15; 95% CI, 1.35-3.44). These patients were also more likely to be treated at the diagnosing site versus elsewhere. Similar beneficial effects were not observed in those first diagnosed by co-located but non-affiliated PCPs.

CONCLUSIONS

Service co-location between co-affiliated PCPs and MH specialists was associated with significant higher ADHD treatment rate and the receipt of guideline-recommended psychotherapy.

Sensor-based proximity metrics for team research. A validation study across three organizational contexts

Wearable sensors are becoming increasingly popular in organizational research. Although validation studies that examine sensor data in conjunction with established social and psychological constructs are becoming more frequent, they are usually limited for two reasons: first, most validation studies are carried out under laboratory settings. Only a handful of studies have been carried out in real-world organizational environments. Second, for those studies carried out in field settings, reported findings are derived from a single case only, thus seriously limiting the possibility of studying the influence of contextual factors on sensor-based measurements. This article presents a validation study of expressive and instrumental ties across nine relatively small R&D teams. The convergent validity of Bluetooth (BT) detections is reported for friendship and advice-seeking ties under three organizational contexts: research labs, private companies, and university-based teams. Results show that, in general, BT detections correlated strongly with self-reported measurements. However, the organizational context affects both the strength of the observed correlation and its direction. Whereas advice-seeking ties generally occur in close spatial proximity and are best identified in university environments, friendship relationships occur at a greater spatial distance, especially in research labs. We conclude with recommendations for fine-tuning the validity of sensor measurements by carefully examining the opportunities for organizational embedding in relation to the research question and collecting complementary data through mixed-method research designs.

Socio-spatial perspectives on open-plan versus cellular offices

Purpose

This research provides a new perspective on the long-standing debate of open-plan versus cellular offices. It analyzes the effects of workplace layouts on organizational outputs such as innovation, efficiency and privacy by considering the physical space of an organization alongside its organizational structure. This socio-spatial approach draws on correspondence theory originating from space syntax to understand the potential for unplanned encounters between diverse groups of people.

Design/methodology/approach

Three different organizations are studied, two open-plan and one cellular office. Floor and seating plans are analyzed to calculate the degree of correspondence between the spatial and conceptual closeness of people. Demands for each organization are derived from semi-structured interviews and publicly available information.

Findings

The three studied organizations present very different degrees of openness toward others in ways that challenge conventional views of cellular and open-plan offices. In each case, the degree of correspondence matches the demands placed on the organization, and hence, providing a relatively good fit between the organization and interior environment.

Research limitations/implications

A larger sample of open-plan and cellular offices would be useful to consider in further research.

Practical implications

Managers can use the concept of correspondence to generate the appropriate degree of unplanned encounters between the right sets of people in order to achieve the best organization-environment fit.

Originality/value

The main innovation of this paper lies in its socio-spatial approach, considering physical space alongside managerial, organizational choices.

Fuel to the fire? The sensemaking of volunteer firefighters and public managers in the context of public reform

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to advance ongoing debates on the organizational impact of wider public sector reform in the field of organizational change management by presenting an analysis the regionalization of the fire service in the Netherlands. How regionalization has impacted the work floor of local fire stations, where the workplace majority comprises volunteers, requires further empirical investigation.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors apply an interpretive approach and qualitative methodology to study how volunteer firefighters and public management make sense of public reform and the ensuing organizational change.

Findings

Findings indicate that while the fire service has professionalized, notable tensions have emerged between public management and volunteers, the regional and local level of fire service and between professionalism and volunteerism which are problematised in the paper.

Originality/value

The originality of the paper is found in the insight it provides in the sensemaking of volunteer firefighters and public managers of diverse of change regions and fire stations during the regionalization process by applying an emergent perspective to change.

Collaboration, Physical Proximity and Serendipitous Encounters: Avoiding collaboration in a collaborative building

Despite the adoption of collaborative buildings and office spaces to improve collaboration, the expected benefits of spatial interventions often fail to materialize. In a study of an ostensibly ‘collaborative building’, we identified strategies that employees use to avoid collaborating (i.e. ‘focusing on existing collaborations’, ‘reinforcing group boundaries’, ‘enacting legacy policies’ and ‘minimizing social interactions’). These strategies combined to minimize serendipitous encounters, which led to the avoidance of new collaborations. Our findings address a theoretical tension in the literature as to whether proximity facilitates or inhibits collaboration. We also show that, while it is often difficult to facilitate serendipitous encounters in an ostensibly collaborative building, serendipity nonetheless plays a central role in the development of new collaborative partnerships.